Fast Fashion Facts

Fast Fashion

We consume 400% more clothes than just a decade ago

We create 11 Million tons of textile waste a year in the U.S. alone

Cotton

Cotton represents 50% of the fibers we use, 90% of which is genetically modified

Cotton uses 25% of the worlds insecticides

Leather 

Leather workers have a 20-50% higher chance of getting cancer

Chromium 6, a carcinogen used to tan leather is known to cause lung cancer, liver failure, kidney failure, and dementia 

Most leather tanneries have been moved overseas because of the undesirable health risks 

Ethics

One in Six people on the planet work in the garment industry

Living Wage is defined as a worker's ability to support themselves and either one adult or two children

Most developing countries pay garment workers less than the legal minimum wage

85% of textile workers are women

Many textile factories employ workers for yearly contracts that include room and board in their payment, just like 17th century indentured servitude

Pollutants

The textile industry is the second largest polluting industry in the world, second to the oil industry

Textile industry is the 2nd largest polluter of clean water in the world, second to agriculture

1850 gallons of water are used to make a pair of jeans